Don't Look Back
by starsnuffers
Summary: Nate is a sixteen-year old living in Seattle, and when his drunken brother doesn't come home around midnight, he goes out into the bad part of town to go look for him. Instead he stumbles upon a girl... Naitlyn.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Damn it.

Rain.

Again.

"Fuck, Jason, why does it always have to rain?" I asked my older brother.

"Because we live in Seattle…?" he tells me.

"Oh. Right." I sigh. "Fuck."

"Hey, you're the one who moved us here."

"Don't go blaming me!"

"Well Mum said you could pick if we should move here or Florida, and you picked here."

"Damn it. Why didn't you stop me?"

"I told you to pick Florida."

I pause. Then, "Fuck."

If only I had picked Florida, none of this would ever have happened. If only I had picked Florida, I wouldn't be peering out the window, praying for the rain to stop. If only I had picked Florida I wouldn't be miserable all the time. And I sure as hell wouldn't have to pick my dazed, drunken brother up off of the back ally ways.

"Fuck," I curse, standing up. I look away from the window. "It's past ten and he's not back yet."

Jason sighs. "Want me to go get him?"

"I'll do it," I grumble, grabbing my coat and umbrella. "If I'm not back by midnight, assume the worse. I might have been struck by lighting. Or have killed myself. Or both. Damn, stupid rain."

"Nate," Jason starts, causing me to turn around, "be careful."

I nod and open the door. The wind howls and thunder booms as lightning lights up the sky. Fuck, I hate Seattle. I open my umbrella and head out to my car.

I open the car door and try my best not to get rain in the car.

That's one of the things I absolutely hate the most. When it's raining and water gets on your seat. Because then you have to sit on it and your ass gets all wet.

I sigh and get out of my car when I get downtown to the sketchy section with all the bars, and grab the flashlight from he backseat of my car, locking the door.

"Shane!" I call, looking down a dark and scary ally. "Fuck it Shane, where the hell are you?" I go down the ally behind the bar he usually goes to.

I open up a lid of a trashcan and my drunken brother falls out onto the pavement with a clatter.

"Where am I?" he asks, dazed.

"Passed out in a trashcan way after my bed time," I reply, getting a banana peel out of is hair.

"What happened?" Shane mutters, attempting to open his eyes.

"Get in the car," I demand.

My brother attempts to stand up and hangs onto me for dear life when he loses his balance.

"Where are they? Where are the purple monkeys?" Shane slurs.

"At home," I tell him, dragging him off.

"No… no, I threw a pancake – a pancake in the river!"

I look at my brother, very confused. "Shane… are you high?"

He responds with a rather loud belch.

I look in his eyes. "Your pupils are fully dilated – you _are_ high. Damn it, what did you take?"

Shane ponders for a second. He sticks his tongue out a bit to the side, thinking intently. "Pink elephant…?" he guesses.

"Shane, that's not a real drug."

"Yes it is."

"Get in the car."

"Yes sir." Shane stumbles around, trying to find the car. I grab his shoulders when he tries to open a brick wall and lead him over to the car, opening it and shoving my brother inside, putting his seatbelt on for him. He mumbles something incoherent and I close the door.

I go around to the other side of the car, but right as I open the door, I hear someone scream. I quickly look up and hear more screaming.

Should I drive away quickly and not get involved? Should I help whomever it is that's screaming? It sounds like a chick.

I'm pretty sure that if I walk away then I hear on the news tomorrow that this person died, I would never forgive myself.

"Stay here," I say to Shane, who just mumbles something about dragons. I lock the car and get the flashlight, looking around.

Then the screaming stops. When I turn the corner, I hear someone crying, so I run down the ally and my flashlight shines right on some chick sitting by the wall, her body folded over in pain, and she was holding her side.

"Are you okay?" I ask, careful not to get to close. I don't want to spook the girl.

She looks up at me, tears pouring out of her blue eyes. She has blood running down her face just like in a horror movie, and her blonde hair splashed with mud. She has plenty of cuts and scrapes on her arms, and her jeans were ripped and covered in dirt and blood.

When she doesn't respond, I inch closer to her.

"Don't hurt me!" she cries, trying to shield herself with one of her hands.

"No, I'm not gonna hurt you," I tell her. I crouch down on my knees. "Should I call 9-1-1?"

"It hurts!" she sobs out, holding her side.

"What?" I ask, frantically, getting worried. I go closer to her. "What happened?"

This just makes her start crying even harder.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I quickly defend. "Just stop crying!"

She shakes her head and starts sobbing and screaming.

"Talk to me!" I yell over her screaming. "Should I call someone?"

The girl shakes her head 'yes.'

"Should I call 9-1-1 or do you want me to call your parents or something? Because you're not giving me a lot to work with here."

"Call 9-1-1!" she screams.

"Okay, okay!" I say and take out my phone, dialing the number.

"Hurry up, dammit! It hurts!"

"I'm going!"

When I hang up the phone she's still bawling.

"What happened?" I ask. Maybe I can get it out of her now.

"Damn it, what the fuck are you doing just sitting there asking me questions?! Help me!"

"Well what do you want me to do!?"

"It fuckin' hurts, you asshole!"

"Well I didn't do anything to you!"

"Fuck you! Help me! God dammit!"

"I don't understand!"

She just screams again.

"Okay, okay, just stop screaming – you're gonna make me go deaf!" I crawl over to her. "Look, just stop crying and I'll-"

"Fuck you!"

"I'm trying to help you! You just gotta stop screaming at me and maybe I'll accomplish something!"

She stops screaming and all I can hear is soft whimpering and the sound of the rain falling on the ground.

"Okay… good…" I exhale a sigh as if a mission were accomplished. "Can you tell me what happened now?"

The girl shakes her head. "It hurts… it hurts so much."

"I know, I know," I soothe, scotching up next to you. "But I'm gonna stay right here next to you. Okay? I'm not gonna leave. Just hang in there."

She nods and sniffs occasionally, whimpering.

I let out a sigh of relief when I hear sirens.

X X X

When I go back to my car, I see Shane there, snoring. When I get in and slam the door, he wakes up, startled.

"I don't have the money, I swear," he says, looking around.

I start the car and drive home.

Fuck Seattle.

When we arrive home, I drag Shane up to the front door and we both go inside. "Bed," I command, pointing to the couch.

Shane grunts and goes over to the couch, plopping down.

I toss a blanket over him and he starts snoring away again.

Jason comes in the room. "Well you made it back alive."

"Somewhat," I say. "So who's gonna stay up tonight?"

"It's you're night."

"Fuck…"

Jason and I have to switch off staying up all night to make sure Shane doesn't choke on his own vomit in the middle of the night.

God, I am so pissed.

"Well goodnight Jason," I say through tightly clenched teeth. All I want to do is sleep. I'm exhausted and I don't want to stay up with my irresponsible asshole of a brother all night.

Jason gives me a half smile and heads upstairs.

I plop myself down on the other couch and turn on the TV.

Shane stirs a bit, so I look over at him. He opens his eyes. "Whoa… How did I get here?"

"Magic," I say sarcastically.

"Whoa. Fuck. Dude." He then stands up. "Oh man I'm gonna hurl."

I hop off of the couch. "Not on the floor, you're not!" I grab the trashcan and shove it at him.

Shane puts it down on the ground and vomits into it a few times.

"Sweet Jesus…" he breathes.

"Mmm hmm…"

"Fuck. I feel like… fuck."

"You always do. Maybe if you stopped drinking, you'd feel better."

He barfs again.

"You know what?" I say, fed up. "I'm done with this. I _hope_ you choke and die. I'm going to bed. The smell of your vomit is getting to me." I storm upstairs and lock my door.

I back up against the locked door, close my eyes, and let out a long sigh. I slide down the door slowly and pull my arms around my knees, tucking my head under my arms.

Damn it, why did we move to Seattle?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I officially hate the world today.

Actually, I hate the world everyday.

When I wake up, I yawn and put on a shirt before heading downstairs. I wipe the sleep away from my eyes, only to bump into my Mum.

Ah, yes. I think it's about time you met my parents.

My mum is a singer. World famous. Known for her scandals.

I like to think of her as Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton.

Only she's not a lesbian.

She's married to my step dad. My fourth one.

And I kinda hate my step dad. His name's Gary. He hates me.

And he accidentally killed my cat, Josephine.

"Accidentally."

More like he ran her over with the Hummer.

But, "accidentally" of course.

Mum looks at me and says, "Watch where you're going, asshole!" and then storms out of the house with Gary and her assistant Alexander.

Mum's latest and greatest scandal was the whole drinking thing. She and Gary went to a strip club.

And Mum got a little to into and started stripping.

Right in front of all the cameras and paparazzi.

And then slept with one of them.

It was the cover of People last week.

My real dad – the first one – lives in Canada. I have no idea where he lives in Canada, but I know he does.

I see my cat, Napoleon, running by, so I pick him up. No, I did not name him after Napoleon Dynamite; I named all my cats after French kings and queens.

Shut up.

I take Napoleon into the other room with me. I see Jason sitting on the couch next to Shane, who was passed out with his mouth attractively wide open and one leg off the side of the couch.

"Yo," I say, setting Napoleon down on the kitchen counter. I open the fridge and take out the orange juice.

Jason glares at me.

I turn around, juice carton in hand. "What?"

"You left last night. You didn't stay with Shane."

I shrug, taking a swig out of the juice. "So?"

"So!?" Jason blows up. "You're so lucky nothing bad happened!"

"Like Napoleon would ever let that happen," I say sarcastically, putting the juice back in the fridge.

"Nate!" Jason reprimands.

"What? What do you want from me?"

"I'm serious Nate, we're talking about our brother's safety here."

"Well it was self-inflicted, so why should I care or do anything about it? If he wants to kill himself then I say let him. Why are we stopping him?"

"NATE!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Go to my room." I pick up Napoleon. "Come on, Napoleon." I start walking away.

"No, Nate, you get back here right now!" Jason yells.

I audibly groan and turn around, walking right up to him. "What!?"

"Don't you dare say anything like that ever again, do you hear me?"

"You're not the boss of me!"

"Hell yes, I am!"

"Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it?"

Jason pulls his hand into a fist and punches me right in the stomach. I yelp and fold over, backing away from him.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"That was for being an ungrateful child!"

I go back up to him and punch him across the face. "That was for being an asshole!"

Jason growls and launches himself at me, pulling me into a headlock. "This is for being a stupid motherfucker!"

"And this is for being a gay bastard!" I kick him in the balls.

Jason cries out in pain and lets go of me.

I kick him in the leg and then grab my cat, running out of the house.

I hop in my car and start it, driving away quickly. I look back and see Jason trying to yell at me from the front lawn. But I don't stop. I keep driving until I turn onto the main street, and then I accelerate even more.

I am running away.

Yes, you heard me right.

Nate Gray is running away.

I am running away from my brothers. I am running away from my stupid fucking mum and Gary. I am running away from my problems.

But mostly, I am running away from Seattle.

Because Seattle is a fucker.

There's a hole in the world like a great black pit called Seattle and it's filled with people who are filled with shit. And the vermin of the world inhabit it. And they all deserve to die.

And what's fucking worse is that it's raining.

It's always fucking raining.

I get onto the highway and drive. I drive out of the city and eventually I make it out of the state. And where do I head?

Straight to California.

And what made it better is that the song, "California" came on the radio right as I crossed into California after driving through Oregon.

I sing along to the radio. "What do you say we leave for California? If we drive all night we can make it by the morning, and no one has to know if we decide to go. What do you say we leave for California? If we leave our friends then we can be together. We can leave this town if only for the weather…"

I look over at Napoleon. He's sleeping. So cute.

"But I'm still driving, just keep sleeping…" I continue.

It's a bit creepy how much this song relates to my life.

Have you noticed songs do that?

When the song's over, a different one comes on, and I turn to my cat. "Napoleon, what do you say? Should we leave for California?"

Napoleon lifts his little head and just looks at me. I reach my hand over and scratch him behind the ears just like he likes. He starts purring and I smile.

"It seems like a good idea, doesn't it?"

And that's when my phone starts ringing.

I open up that compartment thing in between the seats and dig through it to find my phone. It's Jason. I answer it. "What do you want?"

"Nate where did you go?" Jason asks, all worried. "You've been gone all day. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I bark.

"Where are you? Should I pick you up?"

"No! Jason I don't ever want to see you again. Okay? NEVER."

I close my phone and throw it out the window. I hear it break when it hits the highway.

Fuck him.

I don't need him. I don't need anyone. I am perfectly fine on my own, thank you very much.

I turn to my cat. "I guess it's just you and me, Napoleon."

Napoleon meows and stands up, hopping to the back seat. He looks out the back window.

I look in the rear view mirror at him. "Don't look back, Napoleon." I reach back and get my cat, putting him in my lap. "We don't need Seattle. We don't need anyone. Just never look back."

It starts to get dark, but I keep going.

I'm going to Los Angeles.

Why?

Because it's sunny. And bright. And happy. And it never fucking rains. And it's not Seattle.

I stop to eat dinner at a McDonald's in Sacramento and take it to go. I get some chicken nuggets for Napoleon and when I get in the car, he smells the food and has a spasm.

He starts clawing the seat so I toss some chicken to him and he gobbles it up.

Napoleon must have been really hungry because he downs all ten chicken nuggets in less than the time it took me to get them, and then he settles down to take a nap.

I end up driving through the night with Starbucks to keep me awake.

It's a good thing last night I nabbed my credit card and put it in the car.

When I finally make it to Los Angeles, it's four in the morning and I pull up to a hotel. I get a room and then get Napoleon and sneak him up to my room. Right as my head hits the pillow, I close my eyes and sleep.

I don't even bother to take off my socks.

And I always take off my socks.

A\N: FAN FAMILY? Fan FUCKING family. THAT WAS OUR HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DAY? I refreshed the page at least ten times and waited for a FAN FAMILY. Goddamn them. Once again, they have let me down.

**If you don't know what I'm talking about, check the Jonas Brother's MySpace. **

**Well on the bright side, I'm going to start giving people some cool adjectives for all who review. So if you review, I will make up an adjective for you! **


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